Salivary glands are found in and around a person's mouth and throat. The major salivary glands are the parotid, submandibular, and sublingual glands. These glands provide the needed saliva to assist in food chewing and early digestion of certain carbohydrates. Saliva is drained through the salivary ducts near the upper teeth, submandibular under the tongue, and the sublingual.
Among the different salivary gland problems encountered, obstruction to the flow of saliva via the salivary gland ducts may be the most common. This may be caused by the formation of stones, which can become lodged in the duct. Thus, as saliva produced in the salivary gland it cannot exit the ductal system and enter the oral cavity. The lack of saliva flow contributes to dry mouth disorder and can cause swelling of the salivary gland, leading to pain and possible infection.
Other problems may include the development of kinks in the salivary gland ducts, stenosis (i.e., constriction or narrowing) of the salivary gland ducts, or generally, other structural or structurally related defects associated with the salivary glands and/or salivary gland ducts.
It is therefore advantageous to facilitate the integrity of the salivary ducts and their respective glands, and to treat glands rather than remove them.